


Supercut (of us)

by epersonae



Series: The Director [4]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Dancing, Dank potions, F/M, Gen, Johann's dance music is Fantasy Depeche Mode, Stolen Century Spoilers, inebriation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-09
Packaged: 2018-11-29 18:24:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11446497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epersonae/pseuds/epersonae
Summary: Dancing on the night of the Midsummer Festival.





	Supercut (of us)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from [the song by Lorde](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDzfWzORry8), which I've pretty much had on repeat the last few days.

“No, just, go,” said Lucretia. “I’m very sleepy.”

She wasn’t sleepy at all; she was keyed up. While Taako, Merle, and Magnus had been running around waking up the rest of the Bureau, she was in her inner room, pacing back and forth, quietly freaking out, talking to the baby voidfish like she used to do to Fischer when it was just the two of them.

“The scouts are here.” She had to keep saying it out loud to try to make herself believe it. “The scouts are really here.” Barry and Lup had that right, at least, there was a minimum threshold for detectability -- and in adding the Oculus, she’d just passed it.

“The scouts just showed up, and now we have a year, baby,” she said, “and still so much to do.” She was too keyed up to start planning, though, too keyed up to rest, too keyed up to stay by herself.

And so she called them in, hoping to have a useful conversation, hoping maybe, hoping against hope that their minds fresh would have some new insight that had eluded the seven of them for a hundred years.

But they had no idea that a countdown had just started for the apocalypse, and while Magnus was sharp enough to get the possibility of spies…it was sort of the worst, seeing them at their most irreverent (unicorn dick! carnival games!) when she was at her most terrified. Having to come up with a ridiculous elaborate explanation for why they needed to speed up the search for the relics. So whatever would get them out of there, immediately, before she started either laughing hysterically or weeping uncontrollably.

She did a little bit of both, once she was sure they were gone: giggling at their descriptions of the scouts before sobbing. She dismissed the illusion on the painting for just a moment, staring into their faces, as they were so long ago, wiping her face with the back of her sleeve, and then laughing again. The way Taako had so breezily tossed Merle’s gift up into the sky. And then, the way he’d looked on the surfboard, happy and radiant in the sun. Merle’s earnestness in those awful gifts, his endless kindness even when he was so sick. Magnus jumping behind every damn rock, getting Lup to shoot fireballs at chunks of wood... (Lup and Barry and Davenport: don’t think about them right now, you’ll cry again.)

So that was a disaster. If anything, she felt even more frayed and emotionally unhinged. With a wave of her hand, she put the illusion back, until all her friends were gone, and her youth was gone, and what was left: this woman The Director.

She laughed again, though, looking at her ridiculous ballerina costume. A ballerina costume, like a little girl. Time to get out of that.

And do what exactly? The music had picked up again outside, as the Bureau employees came back to their senses, and Johann had switched from fiddle to fantasy synth. His music was still absurdly morose but it sounded danceable.

She had a second costume, she remembered, when she'd been feeling indecisive. This one had a mask, too, which was would be nice. It might be nice to be incognito for a bit.

She took it out of the wardrobe in the corner of her office, where she usually kept some extra robes for when she slept down in the secret office. A fox mask, with white tufts on the ears. A long flowing dress, pink and purple, and a veil that clipped to the mask. Simple, comfortable, and hidden.

 

***

 

“Festive beverage or dank potion?” asked the halfling behind the bar.

She looked out onto the quad. Up on the stage, Johann had been joined by a few other bards on fantasy guitar and drums. The tunes were still gloomy but the beats popped, and they were loud. Dancing figures packed the grassy quad, swaying and bopping, crushed together moving with the music. She touched her fox mask, double-checking that it was secure on her face.

“Dank potion, please.”

Robbie nearly jumped off of his platform.

“Director!”

She put a finger to her lips.

“Not for tonight.”

He grinned and tapped his finger to the side of his nose.

“Say no more! The dankest potion it is.”

He mixed together the contents of half a dozen tiny bottles and handed her a cup in which strange colors swirled and twinkled.

The halfling’s eyes also twinkled as he said, “Bottoms up!”

She sniffed it suspiciously, but it just had a very faint sweet smell. So: bottoms up. Sweet, and at the same time a little bit sour, it tingled on her tongue. She took a deep breath; nothing right away.

“Ok then.” And out into the dancing throng, her heart pounding, but just from nerves; she hasn’t danced since, well, it doesn’t matter -- a long time anyway. She spotted Taako -- flip-wizard mad show-off of a dancer, with a little throng checking out his moves, the long judge’s robe sliding off one shoulder. He was trying to coax Magnus to dance, not directly, but by pulling everyone in his orbit into the dance. The big lug, his face still painted like a kitty, was grinning as he started flailing his arms, a bunch of Taako’s bangles clattering on his wrist.

Then it hits her in a rush, a rush hits her and all she feels is the music, vibrating in her scalp, her toenails, throbbing in her chest and her thighs. She’s moving; she’s dancing, and it’s one of those vanishingly rare occasions in her long life that she’s not thinking about whether she looks strange. She lets Taako draw her into his circle and she sings along with the music while she dances.

Taako grins and spins her around and she crashes into Magnus, who laughs that great rumbling laugh and spins her back. She grabs Taako’s hands and they’re grinning like fools, dancing, dancing, dancing; she spins him to Magnus, and damned if he doesn’t take it in stride, lifting and whirling the elf until Taako is obviously thoroughly dizzy, leaning against Magnus, not really dancing so much as swaying gently to the roaring beat.

She catches a look then, Taako gazing up at Magnus with a lazy smile, cat who caught the canary, and Magnus looking back, a bit startled, a bit confused, and maybe a smidge curious. And if she weren’t held aloft on music and dance and dank-ass potion, well maybe her heart would break a little, but the music swells, and for half a second Taako grinds against Magnus, who blushes. Taako winks at her, an exaggerated gesture, and grabs her hand. They sway together, all three, bumping hips and waving their hands in the air.

She kisses Magnus on the cheek; he jumps a bit and stares at her, as if he could see through her mask and the static of the past for just a second. Then, without hesitating ( _Magnus rushes in_ ) he kisses her on the lips and she swoons. She smiles into the kiss and reaches up to touch his face, letting the greasepaint smear under her fingertips, running her hands into his hair. The night air sparkles around them.

 

_A memory. It doesn’t really matter when, only that they were were all together._

_She’s dancing with Lup, who bends her backwards into a dip and kisses her on the cheek. Magnus laughs, a great hearty sound, and slaps Barry on the back. Barry chuckles; even when he’s happy he sounds just a little nervous, as though everything could come apart at any moment. Merle gives a wolf whistle, and Lup sticks her tongue out at him. Then she sweeps Lucretia back up and spins her around; they’re both laughing, and Lup’s hair flies around her like flame. Taako makes a tsking noise, puts down the dishes he’s washing, and grabs Magnus’ hand._

_“Let’s show ‘em how it’s done, Mango,” he says, and then the boys are dancing too, Taako maybe a bit too intimately for company, but after all, they’re all family here. And of course Merle’s got his moves, despite his size it’s a flurry of movement, and Davenport is clapping along to the music, not dancing: he’s too dignified for that, much like Barry is too shy. But they’re all in the moment, in the music, and together._

 

All around Lucretia, people are singing along to Johann’s melody, and waving their arms up in the air, and the night hums with the energy of people who are a little too drunk and need to let off a little steam. She’s crying, but it doesn’t stop her dancing, and she sort of doesn’t care. She looks up at the stars, just a little closer to them than to the rest of the world, and the real-ass moon in the sky right there.

Lup is gone, and Barry is gone, and Davenport is a shell of a man, and it’s all her fault, yes, all her fault, but she’s dancing, and the music is loud as hell, and Magnus is here, his eyes a little bit too wide with whatever _he’s_ been drinking, and Taako is here, with that sly mischief grin, and Merle’s somewhere around here, probably dancing too. And she’s dancing, and for right now that’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> After listening to that Lunar Interlude bit a few times, I'm starting to wonder if Griffin has any idea what a solstice/equinox is, or when midsummer happens, or possibly how eclipses work. But it's all good.


End file.
